My all time favorite movie is Fight Club, so I was fairly interested when I saw an article on USA today about real life fight clubs that have been springing up. How anyone who has seen the disturbing gore of that movie could actually want to try it out for real is beyond me, but apparently it's a spreading problem. Here's the link for the full article, and I've included some of the more interesting parts below. (All of the following paragraphs are the copyright of USA Today).This is not a scene from the Brad Pitt movie Fight Club. Instead, it involves real teenagers in an underground video called Agg Townz Fights 2. Their ring: the grassy schoolyard of Seguin High School here. They're engaged in a disturbing extreme sport that has popped up across the nation: teen fight clubs."
That fictional scene explains how many teens involved in real-life fight clubs are able to keep them under the radar — even when they come home from school or show up in class with cuts, bruises and swollen knuckles."
Fight clubs tap into a dark, nihilistic "part of the American psyche fascinated by the spectacle of blood and violence," says Orin Starn, cultural anthropology professor at Duke University who teaches about sports in American society. "This does seem a phenomenon of the Mortal Kombat, violent video game generation. The fight club offers the chance to bring those fantasies of violence and danger to life — and maybe have your 15 minutes of fame in an underground video."
Chuck Palahniuk, author of the cult 1996 novel Fight Club that was the basis for the 1999 movie, declined an interview request but said, "God bless these kids. I hope they're having a great time. I don't think they'd be doing it if they weren't having a great time."
The fictional fight club led by Pitt's character, Tyler Durden, in the 1999 movie was made up mostly of men in their twenties who made a sadistic and masochistic sport out of fighting one another.
Durden's main rule for his club became the movie's signature line and a slogan in popular culture: You do not talk about Fight Club.
Teen fight clubs in Arlington often and elsewhere follow that advice, and police and school authorities have been frustrated by the wall of silence that has surrounded the clubs. Not one of the hundreds of parents who viewed clips from Agg Townz 2 at several community and church meetings seemed to have a clue that fight clubs existed — or that their kids were involved, Hawthorne says. Among local teens, he says, the clubs have been common knowledge.
For those who are stupid enough to be considering joining one of these fight clubs, check out this video of what happens to our good friend angelface during his fight with the narrator:LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE tells the story of the Hoovers, one of the most endearingly fractured families ever seen on motion picture screens. Together, the motley six-member family treks from Albuquerque to the Little Miss Sunshine pageant in Redondo Beach, California, to fulfill the deepest wish of 7-year-old Olive, an ordinary little girl with big dreams. Along the way the family must deal with crushed dreams, heartbreaks, and a broken-down VW bus, leading up to the surreal Little Miss Sunshine competition itself. On their travels through this bizarrely funny landscape, the Hoovers learn to trust and support each other along the path of life, no matter what the challenge.
It still looks like it could be a good quirky comedy, and hopefully I'll get out and see it and post a review. Strange that its already out and I haven't seen any commercials for it at all, but maybe it'll be one of those good unknown comedies.
King Kong is, quite aptly put, a monster of a movie. It topped Titanic as the most expensive movie ever produced, and the running time comes in at just over three hours. I was worried that the long running time would destroy any film's entertaining scenes (The Deer Hunter anyone?), but I'm happy to report that King Kong was so good that I didn't even notice the excessive length. This even includes the exposition of the film, and I usually think of character set-up as tedious.
I was totally taken away by King Kong. I thought that Peter Jackson did an excellent job of making the film believeable. As strange as it sounds, Kong and Ann were a good onscreen couple. I thought that Andy Serkis (Kong) actually did a better acting job than Watts in this relationship. You could tell that Kong cared for Darrow without it being over the top, while I thought that Naomi Watts overplayed her role and was over dramatic. I also thought that the "connection" between Darrow and Kong was much stronger that between Darrow and Driscoll, which is strange since they were supposed to be lovers.
Go out and rent this movie today. It's like nothing you've ever seen before, and its really, really good.
places in his life. He writes himself notes to remind himself to do things, while always being on the lookout for someone to write a false note to put him off the trail of the killer. Vital information he tatoos on his body.
The backwards order of the film is also good because it makes repeat viewings as entertaining as the first time. Every time you watch Memento you see something new; another piece falls into place. The events in Memento are also up to interpretation, which means that you can spend hours arguing with your friends over what really just happened. This movie is a new classic and everyone should see it.
Check out these shorts from Independent filmmaker Brian Nelligan. Drano is the strangely humorous story of someone who wants to end their life, but just can't seem to do it. Mary's Car Key's is about a woman who needs to flee the country after a murder, but has a little trouble with her keys. The Rise and Fall of Dustin Voyeur, my favorite short out of the three, is the story of an awkward college student who becomes a local celebrity, only to end up laying bloody on the ground. If you like what you see, make sure to order a copy of Brian's DVD from his myspace: http://www.myspace.com/briannelligan
